Chapter 5: Rainfall Technique, Breakthrough! Great Harvest!
Chapter 5: Chapter 5: Rainfall Technique, Breakthrough! Great Harvest!
Spiritual Rain pattered down steadily, nourishing the Spirit Yellow Rice in the field.
Water droplets hung from the rice panicles, crystal clear.
Wang Lixia had managed this piece of Spirit Field quite well. It seemed this year would be a year of abundant harvest, yielding a good crop.
Along with the jump in experience points, Chen Mo’s Rainfall Technique finally reached the Proficient Realm.
As for the experience required to level up, it had increased from 100 points to 200 points.
Retracting his technique, he heard slightly faltering footsteps coming from behind.
Chen Mo turned around, bowed respectfully, and said, "Senior, thank you!"
Wang Lixia didn’t speak. Instead, she casually took out a Porcelain Bottle and tossed it over.
Over these past few days, she had seen Chen Mo’s behavior clearly. He was sincere in his actions and upright in character. For two consecutive months, without missing a single day, he had come here every early morning to cast Rainfall on the Spirit Field.
Chen Mo calmly caught the last Fasting Pill, cupped his fists again, and said, "Senior, at the end of the year, after I sell this batch of Spirit Rice, I will definitely offer you three Fasting Pills in return!"
Wang Lixia looked at his earnest and sincere expression, and a touch of kindness gradually appeared on her stern face. If she were a mortal, she would have probably become a grandmother by now. Her grandson would probably be about his age, wouldn’t he?
"Little friend, let me give you a piece of advice from someone who has been there," Wang Lixia said, parting her lips slightly.
"Please speak, Senior!"
"If you have the chance, you should quit being a Spirit Plant Cultivator."
Chen Mo froze. He ultimately swallowed back the question, "Why?"
In truth, he knew very well that the number of Spirit Plant Cultivators around the Ancient Dust Marketplace was at least eight hundred, if not a thousand. Yet, how many of them had reached the Qi Refining Third Layer or above? The vast majority were only at the first or Second Layer.
A year of abundant harvest like this one wasn’t something they encountered every year. It was perfectly normal to have a minor disaster every three years and a major disaster every ten. At such times, not a single grain of Spirit Rice would be harvested, yet the rent for Purple Cloud Peak wouldn’t be reduced by a single penny!
Therefore, for the vast majority of Spirit Plant Cultivators, the longer they stayed, the harder it was for them to leave these two or three acres of Spirit Fields. And the harder it was to leave the Spirit Fields, the more difficult it became to achieve a breakthrough in their Realm.
Fortunately, Chen Mo was different. As long as he had time, he had every chance to break out of the vicious cycle that trapped the other Spirit Plant Cultivators!
"Thank you, Senior. I will keep it in mind."
Wang Lixia nodded and turned around, looking somewhat lonely. She also knew that while it was easy to say, how many people could actually do it? When a person is near death, their words are kind. This was nothing more than her rambling before her time was up.
Naturally, Chen Mo didn’t take Wang Lixia’s words to heart. At this moment, having swallowed the Fasting Pill, he returned to his own field with brisk steps.
Once the Spiritual Qi in his body recovered to thirty percent, he pondered carefully and began his first casting of Rainfall since reaching the Proficient Realm. He actively integrated his [Increased Production] Talent into it. The Spiritual Rain, mixed with Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi, nourished the rice panicles in the field.
After a little under half an hour, when the last Spirit Field had become moist, Chen Mo successfully retracted his technique. This time, he was surprised to find that the Spiritual Qi in his Dantian hadn’t bottomed out as usual; instead, just under ten percent remained!
He wondered, "Huh? The Rainfall Technique broke through to the Proficient Realm, and the consumption of Spiritual Qi has decreased?"
He had never heard of this before!
Wait!
Chen Mo suddenly realized something. According to Wang Lixia, although the Rainfall Technique was the bread-and-butter skill of Spirit Plant Cultivators, the entry-level Realm was completely sufficient to manage three to five acres of Spirit Fields. No one would deliberately cultivate this Basic Magic!
He had inquired around before; even Wang Lixia’s Rainfall Technique was only at the Proficient Realm. Moreover, they didn’t have a Golden Finger that granted experience points simply through casting, so they wouldn’t spend a large amount of time, energy, and Spiritual Qi cultivating it!
"So that’s how it is!
"Now, with my current Spiritual Qi, I can irrigate almost ten acres of Spirit Fields!"
Chen Mo recovered from his joy and cast his gaze toward the Spirit Rice in the field. After a bout of "Increased Production," he didn’t know if it was an illusion, but he actually felt as though new grains had sprouted on the rice panicles.
He thought to himself, "There’s still a month left. I hope the yield can truly increase before they mature!"
The next moment, he opened the interface.
[Name: Chen Mo]
[...]
[Rainfall Technique: 1/200]
[...]
[Increased Production (Green): 1/200]
"Hmm?"
The changes on the interface took Chen Mo by surprise. He was very clear that originally, there had been no experience points behind the [Increased Production] Talent!
[Increased Production (Green): Absorbing Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi into Cloud Formation and Rainfall Skill to increase Spirit Plant yields. This Talent can be integrated into Techniques such as the Rainfall Technique to increase Spirit Field yields by 20% (Currently integrated with the Rainfall Technique. When casting, you can freely choose whether to integrate it. When this method levels up, the Talent also levels up).]
Integration? Didn’t that mean that once the Talent leveled up, the yield of the Spirit Fields would increase further?
Chen Mo originally thought the Green Increased Production Talent could only increase the yield by 20%, but looking at it now, that wasn’t the case at all!
One must know that in the Magic Realm, above the Proficient Realm lay Mastery, Minor Achievement, Great Success, Perfection, and the Transformation Realm! Based on this calculation, could the [Increased Production] Talent also level up five times?
At this moment, Chen Mo made up his mind. He had to cultivate the Flaming Palm, and he still had to cultivate the Rainfall Technique!
Over the next month, he managed the eight acres of Spirit Fields every three days. The Proficient Realm Rainfall Technique now only consumed seventy to eighty percent of his Spiritual Qi, and the remaining Spiritual Qi was used to cultivate the Flaming Palm.
As for his Cultivation Immortal Realm?
Chen Mo had completely given up. Three months had passed, but the Qi Cultivation Technique hadn’t budged an inch. It was still at 44 points. It seemed that until he bought Spiritual Sand, he could forget about his Realm.
However, this was only normal. The Spiritual Qi between heaven and earth in this world was already thin. Even the genius Cultivators of the Cyan Yang Sect relied on Spirit Stones to cultivate, let alone a Loose Cultivator like him with mediocre Innate Talent, Spirit Root, and aptitude?
Three months passed in the blink of an eye.
As the weather gradually turned cool, the rice panicles in the Spirit Fields became increasingly plump.
The Spirit Plant Cultivators of the Ancient Dust Marketplace began to get busy. Some had already started harvesting the early-maturing Spirit Rice. Over the next half month, the Grain Collection Officer of Purple Cloud Peak would visit every Marketplace and every Spirit Field to collect rent.
Spirit Plant Cultivators like Chen Mo and Wang Lixia needed to harvest their rice before the Grain Collection Officer arrived and wait for him to come knocking. As for Boss Wei’s 110 pounds of Spirit Rice, he would naturally have to deliver it after the Grain Collection Officer had collected the grain. He could also discuss next year’s seeds in passing.
The Spirit Rice in Chen Mo’s field was visibly ripening. Before harvesting, he dug a large pit in the clearing behind his wooden cabin. This single pit alone could store over ten thousand pounds of rice.
Of course, he definitely didn’t have that much grain right now, but there was no guarantee he wouldn’t in the future. It was always better to be prepared.
After two full days of busyness, Chen Mo completed the harvesting, threshing, and other processes all by himself. It was only three acres of land, so naturally, it didn’t take too much effort.
After the Spirit Rice was harvested, it piled up into a small mountain.
After weighing it, it totaled close to 750 pounds!
Setting aside the 20% from Increased Production, this meant that this year’s Spirit Rice already had a few dozen extra pounds on its own. It could truly be called a bumper harvest!
Chen Mo packed the extra 150 pounds into burlap sacks specifically meant for grain and buried them in the ground.
Next, all he had to do was wait for the Grain Collection Officer to come to his door.